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Summative evaluation resources
I believe that, in this time of straitened financial circumstances, the contributions of CCL become more important than ever, because a country’s human capital becomes more important than ever. An investment in CCL contributes to Canada’s Knowledge Advantage—the advantage in training, in literacy, in innovation—that will help our country to prosper and to compete internationally.
CCL is the only national, independent organisation that provides objective information and analysis that enable Canada to track its progress in learning—the key to improving our quality of life and global competitiveness.
The world is in transition in so many ways, and the rate of change may appear forbidding to many of us. But one of the welcome challenges is the growing shift from carbon energy to human energy. CCL’s work responds to the need for effective development of our country’s people—whether Canadian-born or recently arrived in this country.
CCL provides evidence for informed decisions by learners and potential learners, by educators and employers and by governments. Its contributions extend far beyond the short term, to build a long-term, sustainable advantage for our country.
My studies in medicine, with specialisation in Community Health and Epidemiology, instilled in me an abiding interest in the history of disease and of humankind’s attempts to avert or control illness. The influenza pandemic of 1918-19 claimed the lives of tens of millions of people around the world. At that time few resources were available to investigate the dynamics of how disease spread and how to diminish transmission of disease. Had countries had greater resources and a greater capacity to organise a response, the outcomes would have been far less devastating. Think back to the SARS crisis in 2003, which commanded investment of considerable resources in a short timeframe to prevent widespread transmission in Canada.
Our society makes valiant efforts to understand the origin of both transmissible and chronic diseases. We invest in agencies such as the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) which gathers information about health-care services and overall population health. Why? Because evidence is the key to understanding. Understanding is fundamental to tracking and controlling. And evidence and understanding are the scales on which different and opposing results hang in the balance.
Today, not to invest in generating such evidence and understanding is unthinkable, even in times of financial stringency: the stakes are too high.
Learning and health care differ in many respects, but they are equally significant to the destiny of societies. In each case, pivotal to progress and successful outcomes is the availability of adequate information and independent analysis—through evidence. This is the reason why Canada cannot afford NOT to continue its investment in lifelong learning through CCL.
Many countries of the OECD have set a goal of making learning a source of competitive advantage. The United States and the United Kingdom, to name only two, have already established nationwide programs for developing and sharing information about learning that will improve people’s lives.
In challenging economic times, CCL is part of the solution. Investment in human capital will distinguish successful societies from their competitors. Those economies that are supported by powerful learning systems will perform best in good times and in bad. CCL represents a principal means for Canada to measure its progress in learning, and based on that evidence, take the short- and long-term steps that will sustain our economic growth and our social fabric.
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